With load-shedding close to an end, focus is on reducing cost of electricity

As the country edges closer towards an energy recovery, the National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom) will turn its focus to reducing the cost of electricity.

This is the view coming out of Tuesday's meeting between President Cyril Ramaphosa, his cabinet and business. The meeting believes the country’s electricity problems will soon be a thing of the past as Eskom approaches 150 days of no load-shedding.

James Mackay, CEO of the Energy Council of SA and a representative of Necom, said the growing collaboration between the government and business was creating a renewed confidence in the economy and this was already bearing fruit when it came to energy.

He said the discussion on the Energy Action Plan had three pillars: fix, build and reform.

On the fix aspect, Mackay said there was a lot to celebrate, as it was clear the country was moving out of load-shedding which had damaged the economy.

Now the focus will move towards addressing the increasing system cost, system efficiency and making sustainable investments and structural reforms.

“There’s clearly a lot we can celebrate, it’s always an easy conversation to talk about the successes, but a clear caveat [is] we have to keep pressure on continuing performance-recovery work on the power stations but recognising the work that has been done by Eskom and a number of other role players also in government, but also the way business has really leant in and contributed,” said Mackay.

He said there was a growing confidence that the government would be able to call an official end to load-shedding, adding that this was based on the continued and increasing focus on performance and planning. 

Mackay said approaching 150 days free of load-shedding would be a major milestone, adding that the business effort through Necom was continuing.

Eskom is now producing more electricity than needed and is even switching off some of its units.

Mackay said the country was facing an increasing system cost which would have a significant effect on customers and communities and the industry itself. The costs were driven up partly by the recovery of load-shedding, which he said was necessary, but in future the focus will be on ensuring transparent system planning to ensure an adjusted critical path.

“Under the sixth administration I think at Necom level we created the critical path to guide us around taking action around ending load-shedding. We need to now look at that adjusted critical path to look at the new focus areas which is more around the reform and the system.

“So we do need to drive forward for a more effective system with [lower costs] for all consumers. That will take time. These costs are in the system so we do have to deal with it but immediately it highlights the importance of things like grid expansion, market reform and addressing the role of sustainable municipalities — all of which will unlock huge investments in new generation as well as modernisation and capacitation.”

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